


Five Scenes At The Office

by Lempo Soi (Lemposoi)



Category: Green Hornet (2011)
Genre: Female Characters, Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Past Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-07
Updated: 2011-02-07
Packaged: 2017-10-15 12:18:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/160774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lemposoi/pseuds/Lempo%20Soi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Deleted scenes" with Lenore Case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Scenes At The Office

1.

"So what's Britt Reid like to work for?" Lenore Case asked Chandra at the water cooler. It was her second day at _The Sentinel._

Chandra, who worked on the local crime team, was younger than Lenore and just as flashy in her red dress as Lenore had been in her white the day before. She snorted at Lenore's question. "Who knows? He was hardly ever in before a couple of days ago. Axford runs the paper."

"I didn't think he seemed the boss type myself. More like a consultant." Lenore frowned. "One of those people who are all about motivation and not all that much about, well, facts, or the practical side of things."

Chandra lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Honestly, the guy doesn't know jack about the news business. I think he just got bored partying and boning with nobody left around to get upset about it, so he barges in here and thinks he can pick up the trade as he goes along. He'll go away again when he gets bored but in the meanwhile we have to run this Green Hornet shit. I'd much rather be writing about the drug wars."

"Kind of dangerous, isn't it?" Lenore asked, trying to peer inside Reid's office through its glass walls.

"Yeah, it is," said Chandra, leaning over to fill her water bottle, "but worthwhile."

Lenore could see Reid gesturing wildly at Mr Kato, who reached towards the window and brought down the blinds. It was almost as if he'd known they were being watched - not that that was such a big assumption to make. Lenore was sure she wasn't the only one. "What about that Mr Kato? Has he been around for long?"

"No, he came in with Britt Reid. No credentials – his contract was drawn up yesterday afternoon, after he'd already attended a board meeting. Half the people around here think he's just Reid's drinking buddy who needed a job."

"And the other half?"

"They think he's his boyfriend. Britt's got a rep with the ladies, but this is LA, after all." Chandra shrugged. "At least the guy's doing his job, as much as there is of it. Anyway, good luck with the secretary thing, for as long as it lasts." Chandra winked at her and wandered back towards her cubicle.

Lenore returned to her new desk and sat down, leaning back in the chair just enough to look through the second office window pane, the one not obscured by blinds. She saw Britt's back as he leaned on his desk, still gesturing. Kato was out of sight. She narrowed her eyes, tilted her head, and ran the two men's interaction from their previous meeting through her head.

Nah. No sex. 'Drinking buddy' was more like it.

She went back to work on the mess of old files her predecessor had left behind.

*

2.

Lenore knew she'd entered into this job the wrong way. It was not enough to be bright or even right when everybody thought you were hired because you slept with the boss. She'd have to put in extra effort every day to convince people that she was worth listening to.

Fortunately, she was up to the task.

She wore a conservative blouse and skirt and kept her folders clutched in front of her as she stood across from Axford's desk in his office, a look carefully constructed to counter her brand new scarlet woman rep. Axford sized her up with not so much curiosity as cynical resolve, the look of a man who had worked for a very long time at a very hard job and figured he'd seen it all.

"Well?" he grunted.

"Sir, Mr Reid's prediction about the Green Hornet has proved fortunately apt," she began. "You've seen the hit counts on the website since he resurfaced."

"I have." Axford took off his glasses, polished them and placed them back on his nose. "Get on with it, girl, I'm still a busy man."

Lenore forced herself not to react to the 'girl'. "So, anticipating your line of thought, I did a little research, and there's no better time to capitalize on the interest. _The LA Sentinel_ is a local newspaper, but crime fans' interest in this guy is a global phenomenon. They're blogging about him in places like Brazil, Taiwan, Finland." She handed him a folder with graphs. Editors loved graphs. "We can't trademark him, but we are the paper with all the fresh Hornet news, and we can work to make sure every Google search hits our page first. I know the guys at technical are working on search engine optimization, but there's so much further we could go. Like, say, produce a Green Hornet game. Make it an iPad app. There's going to be one out there eventually, but if we sponsor it and the developer download page links to our site, and the game is simple and addictive enough, we'll be raking in the hits, not to mention a cut on the advertising revenue from the free version."

She knew Axford didn't like the Internet, but she was right, dammit. He had to get used to it sooner or later, and he knew that perfectly well, too. He flipped through the papers, his face inscrutable. " _The Sentinel_ , Green Hornet central," he said at last. "From tough reporting to a cartoon circus. Whorish."

'Whorish.' She pressed her fingernails into her hand and forced a smile on her face. "Opportunistic might be a better word, sir. That is, I believe, what this business is all about – finding opportunities and making use of them. For example, I myself failed to take the opportunity to sleep with Britt Reid." She leaned over his desk and lowered her voice. "I guess that makes me a worse journalist than you. Less ambitious, at any rate."

He looked at her then, really looked at her, eyes widening slightly. Panic. "It was in James Reid's files," she continued, "which he left behind for Britt and which I sorted out. I saw old letters and some e-mails he hadn't deleted yet. It's interesting that he kept them. I guess Mr Reid was more of a romantic than anyone thought."

Axford's eyes narrowed. "If you're trying to blackmail me..."

"I'm not," Lenore said quickly. "See, it's okay. I've already deleted the emails, and--" She handed another folder to Axford. "Here are your letters. All of them, or at least all the ones I found, and I'm very good at finding things. My point is just this: You are one hell of an editor-in-chief, Mr Axford. You earned every bit of recognition you ever got. All I'm asking for is to be given the same opportunity."

He opened the folder and leafed through the pages, most of them handwritten, some typed out on a typewriter. She was careful to fix her eyes away from his face. "And," she added softly, "I am truly sorry for your loss."

That was it, her best shot. She waited.

"Well," he said at last, his voice rough. "You do have balls."

For a moment, Lenore lost her cool. "Why does everyone keep--"

"Enough, Ms Case. We're good." He reached across the desk and offered his hand. Hesitantly, Lenore gripped it, and Axford held it for a long time, his grip hard and leathery, before letting go with a final squeeze.

Lenore let out a small breath of relief and smiled. Damn, but she was good.

*

3.

Lenore listened to Kato's small talk, but his body language was louder. This had been coming on for a while and she could see how it would go from here as clearly if it had already happened. He would circle and chat and be charming and maybe get to the point somewhere in the next couple of days, but tomorrow was gym night and the day after that she was going to the opera with her mom, and over the weekend she had wanted to catch up with Hornet stuff and re-read the relevant parts of some of her old course books. Tonight would suit her much better.

"Listen, Kato," she said, not flirting like he was, because she was terrible at flirting and she just couldn't see the point of it anymore at this juncture, "I was thinking, maybe we could get together after work..."

So she asked him out, and they made a date, and Britt Reid barged in between them with all the subtlety of a rampaging water buffalo, the boys had a scuffle in the kitchenette and Lenore realized she'd made a mistake. Whatever was going on between them, it was ugly, and despite her never having shown one smidgen of interest in Britt Reid she was now evidently a part of it.

She'd go through with the date, but make sure it was the last one. She had no interest in losing her job – especially this one, which paid well and actually let her use her degree – over a potential relationship with someone she barely knew.

*

4.

Lenore placed the cup of water on the desk, dipped a handkerchief in it and brought it to Britt's face, wiping off the cold sweat. He really was being quite a trooper. He should have been in the hospital hours ago.

They had snatched a moment of privacy before the press conference in one of the smaller offices on the second floor next to the printing room, in a corner of the building that hadn't been entirely demolished by last night's battle. There was loud banging outside as parts of the printing press were being repaired in a hurry to keep the production going. They'd have to largely rely on web output for tomorrow's income, but then they did that anyway, and with news like these, business was about to go up.

"Remember, keep it short and sweet. I don't want you fainting before it's time," she reminded him.

He managed a weak grin. "Lenore, thank you."

She stopped, astonished. "Did you just thank me? Actually thank me?"

"You're saving my ass, and Kato's ass. You're, like, an angel. A beautiful angel. And brilliant."

"If you try to kiss me again I will put my thumb in your shoulder," she warned him.

She still wasn't sure this was a good idea.

Deciding to help them had barely been a decision at all. Somewhere along the line, and she suspected it had been around the time Britt had climbed down and apologized to her, he and Kato had become, well, _her people._ She looked out for her people. Then there'd been the plan and the preparations and she'd not had time to put things together until they were already in the car to the Sentinel Building with Lenore behind the wheel and Britt in the backseat alternately groaning and blabbering while Kato fussed over him (and Kato really hadn't seemed like the type to _fuss_ ) and it had all been rather distracting.

It did explain Britt's questions about the Hornet and how, whatever she predicted the Hornet would do, the Hornet inevitably did. It also explained why there were fewer reports coming in of any crime not related to gang warfare. She was not yet entirely convinced that all the violence, destruction of property and reckless endangerment of the public was worth a few less wild nights out for coked-out party girls (and didn't Britt like those, anyway, famously so?), but she was willing to believe that those two idiots meant well.

And they needed her. _Boy_ , did they need her.

*

5.

Lenore sat down behind her desk, looked up and smiled at Chandra, who winked at her from the water cooler. Her pale yellow miniskirt matched the faux-retro highlights of the rebuilt editorial room of _The Sentinel._ The whole place was shining with newness.

"Hey, congratulations," said a voice behind her, and she spun around on her chair to see Martin, the oldest reporter on the local crimes team, smiling at her with his hand stretched out. "Welcome to the team, officially. You'll do just fine."

She smiled, and it was a good smile, she knew, because she could feel it down to her toes. "Thank you." She took his hand and shook it. "It's a dream come true."


End file.
